Your iPhone Cable Might Not Be As Safe As You Think

Have you heard those conspiracies circling that Apple purposefully design their chargers to break after a certain time so you’re forced to buy new ones? We’re not so convinced on that. Yeah a spare iPhone cable is super expensive but there’s a reason you have to fork out over £15 for 30cm of cable: it’s not going to burn your house down.

If you’ve recently bought a fake iPhone cable to save some money, you might have made a massive mistake. You can pick these cables up for a penny and postage on eBay which is a great deal but there’s a reason they’re that cheap.

They’re proven to be 99% unsafe.

Image credit: Digital teacher

Commissioned by Trading Standards, a test on 400 iPhone cable knock-offs showed that only three of them were properly insulated to protect against electric shocks. That’s not encouraging news.

Apple put out regular safety warnings that advise customers to avoid these chargers but they’re obligated to since if something happens to your phone, you’ve lost your warranty.

As the Metro report, 90% of chargers sold on Amazon, for example, can cause overheating which, at best, will damage your phone’s battery permanently and at worst cause a house fire.

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You might remember that earlier this year reports of Samsung Note 7s spontaneously exploding in people’s pockets. The difference between that and this is that was not the customer’s fault – it was a design flaw on Samsung’s part. Buying one of these cables means that you won’t be protected if the worst should happen.

Here are some sanctioned tips from Metro to keep your iPhone charger safe.